Exotic animals that survived from the Zanesville farm: Whatever happened to ... ?

In this photo obtained by the Associated Press, carcasses lay on the ground at the Muskingum County Animal Farm after police shot them following their release in Zanesville, Ohio.Associated Press file

"Whatever happened to . . .?" is a weekly series updating some of the most newsworthy and interesting local stories covered in The Plain Dealer. Have a suggestion on a story we should update? Send it to John C. Kuehner.

Marian Thompson is keeping two Celebes macaque monkeys, one spotted leopard, one black leopard and a brown bear that survived.

Sheregistered the animals with the state before the deadline Nov. 5 and indicated she plans on keeping them at the Muskingum County farm, according to Ohio Department of Agricultural Spokeswoman Erica Hawkins.

Ohio lawmakers adopted a new law requiring that current wild animal owners register their animals with the state and eventually obtain a permit to keep wild animals.

On Oct. 11, 2011, exotic animal keeper Terry Thompson turned loose rare, wild animals that he kept on his Zanesville farm and then committed suicide. The incident made international news.

While a law-enforcement SWAT team descended on the farm to kill the freed animals so they didn't escape into the public, six animals survived either because they didn't try to escape or because their cages weren't unlocked by Thompson. Officers killed 48 animals.

After the incident, the Ohio Department of Agriculture ordered the six animals quarantined at the Columbus Zoo for a six-month period to make sure they were disease-free. During their stay at the zoo, a spotted leopard that survived died when a mechanical gate came down on its neck and killed it by accident.

The five surviving animals were returned around the beginning of May to Marian Thompson, Hawkins said.

Alarmed over number of exotic animals in the state and lack of any idea of how many were there, Ohio lawmakers passed a new law requiring that current wild animal owners register their animals with the state and eventually obtain a permit to keep wild animals.

Wild animal owners who did not register their animals by Monday are subject to a first-degree misdemeanor or fifth-degree felony charge and would be disqualified from owning animals once the permitting process begins in 2014, Hawkins said.

State officials are expected to break ground soon on an animal enclosure that will house animals that are taken from owners not in compliance with wild animals laws or who have not registered the animals. The holding facility, to be built on state land in the Columbus surburb of Reynoldsburg, is expected to cost about $3.5 million. The facility is expected to house about 30 to 40 animals and snakes.

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